One swing shows the difference a year can make for Royals’ Ryan O’Hearn
The Kansas City Royals didn’t have a lot of silver linings to pull out of Thursday’s loss to the Colorado Rockies in Scottsdale, but Ryan O’Hearn’s solo home run in the sixth inning meant more than just avoiding a shutout.
Royals manager Mike Matheny said on Friday that the club still hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a “soft” platoon of O’Hearn and right-handed hitting Ryan McBroom at first base. Since taking the helm as manager this offseason, Matheny has been fairly outspoken about his belief in O’Hearn having a bounce-back year after scuffling through a 2019 season that included a demotion to the minors.
O’Hearn continues to try to show that last season’s struggles are behind him and he can be an everyday option at first base.
The 6-foot-3, 220-pound left-handed slugger entered Friday 7-for-23 (.304) at the plate with four of his seven hits going for extra bases (two doubles, two homers). His laser beam of a homer Thursday, against a left-handed pitcher, just reinforced his case.
He feels like his at-bats have gradually gotten better and he has been seeing the ball better, and he knows being able to make fixes to his swing or approach during the games will prove pivotal.
“Being able to make the adjustments I think is going to be good in the long run, understanding that I don’t have to swing out of my shoes in plus counts,” O’Hearn said. “I’m just staying within myself and going out there and having fun.”
In each of his first two at-bats in Thursday’s game, O’Hearn hit two harmless fly balls to left field for outs on swings that let him know he wasn’t swinging the bat with the efficiency and power necessary to drive the ball.
Before his third go-round in the batter’s box, this time against a left-handed pitcher and former Royal Tim Collins, O’Hearn turned to hitting coach Terry Bradshaw and newcomer to the staff John Mabry about not falling into the same trap in his third and final at-bat of the day.
“I mean I think my first two at-bats I was kind of losing my backside and the barrel was dropping a little bit on two pitches I should’ve handled,” O’Hearn said. “I talked to Mabry and TB about what I was trying to do when I went up there on my last AB, stay tall on the backside. It’s an adjustment we’ve been working on. Just got a 2-0 fastball and was on-time. That was a good way to end the day.”
Collins unleashed a 2-0 belt-high offering and O’Hearn turned on it in the blink of an eye and crushed it halfway up the berm seating behind the right field wall.
It’s one at-bat in spring training and a home run that will be forgotten with all the other spring training stats once the regular season begins. However, the homer looms large because of O’Hearn’s inability to work himself out of a funk last season.
Asked if the ability to make the adjustment in-game was encouraging, “Absolutely. It’s something that for whatever reason I wasn’t able to do last year. So I feel good where I’m at. I think we’ve been putting good work in. As long as I’m able to make in-game adjustments — I don’t want to be a stubborn hitter anymore. I want to be able to make adjustments, listen to what Terry and Mabry are seeing then go up there no fear let it fly.”
Last season, O’Hearn posted a slash line of .195/.281/.369 in 105 major-league games. He got out of the gates painfully slowly with a .188 batting average through his first 56 games, and he never managed to get fully on track.
He hit six home runs during that early stretch and had a total of 14 in the majors last season despite his inconsistencies at the plate.
Even after hitting well in Triple-A (.295/.383/.479 with 9 homers), he still couldn’t make that success quite translate when he returned to the majors in late July. He batted .204 after being recalled though he hit eight homers and collected 20 RBIs in his last 49 games.
The process leading to Thursday’s homer was something Matheny watched unfold in the dugout and in the batter’s box.
“The ball was getting a little deep, getting beat a little bit,” Matheny said. “It was interesting. I was listening to the conversation he was having with Terry Bradshaw and John Mabry, just kind of talking about getting ready a little sooner. To see the conversation turn into the thought process turn into execution, that’s certainly one of those positives you take out of the day.”
